“Europeans got more of their electricity from renewable sources than fossil fuels for the first time last year,” CNN reported on Sunday, January 24, 2021, adding, “The shift comes as other sources, such as wind and solar power, have … nearly doubled since 2015.” That&#[...]
Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
What will Biden’s China policy look like?
Tougher, like Trump’s, but different in key ways. Almost certainly, China’s growing aggressiveness is the most difficult foreign policy challenge that President Biden will have to contend with. Under Trump, the U.S. adopted a tougher stance toward China, but clumsily; this likely will co[...]
January 22nd, 2021 - 12:06 am § in Economics, Schools & Colleges
Biden’s student debt agenda
On Day 1, President Biden extended the freeze on federal student loan payments and interest through September 30, 2021. His $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan, which is subject to congressional approval (Republicans will try to scale it down), does not include student loan forgiveness. However, R[...]
Whither climate policy?
With the impending change in U.S. administrations, we can look forward to a more rational science-based climate policy (I say “more” because Republicans in Congress will throw up impediments), but will it — will anything — be enough? In these extracts from an article original[...]
How clueless Democrats lost the white working class to Trump
An essay by Joan C. Williams, a professor at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, published in Harvard Business Review in November 2016 (and cited in the January 19, 2021, issue of Barron’s magazine), became one of the most widely read articles in HBR’s history. Read it here. The wh[...]
It’s NOT the economy, stupid!
Trump’s diehard supporters, some of whom are affluent doctors, lawyers, cops, firefighters, teachers, and other professionals, are motivated by “anxiety over race and social standing, not economic distress,” according to this article. Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
Covid-19: What to expect in 2021
The Atlantic chronicles Covid-19’s trail of destruction in the U.S. this way: “The coronavirus pandemic ignited at the end of 2019 and blazed across 2020. … The first two surges, in the spring and summer, plateaued but never significantly subsided. The third and worst is still ongo[...]
Restaurant owner talks about Covid shutdowns (video)
In this 9½-minute video, a Michigan restaurant owner interrupts a live local TV news broadcast to air his grievances about that state’s indoor dining closure, and the reporter lets him talk. What he gets isn’t a mindless rant; instead, the man says, “I can’t do this alone[...]
Covid relief imminent, but did Democrats cave to get it?
Pending bill includes $600 per person stimulus checks As Congress moves toward a compromise on more Covid-19 relief, Republicans are bragging they got everything they wanted, and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), who held up the bill, called Democratic concessions “an unqualified victory” for his [...]
Latest on Covid relief bill
There’s still no legislation, and it now looks like tomorrow’s deadline for congressional action to keep the government from falling apart will get pushed into the weekend, but if the Lone Ranger arrives to save the day, it looks like you might get 50% of a stimulus check in January, the[...]